2001 – Page 51

The Chamber of Deputies has elected PRD party spokesman Alfredo Pacheco (PRD-National District) to represent the Chamber of Deputies in the National Council of the Magistracy. The deputies voted 78-49 in his favor. The Council was convened to choose three new Supreme Court judges. Internal rivalry in the PRD kept the Senate from choosing its …

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No one doubts boy pitcher Danny Almonte could become another Pedro Martinez. Playing for the US, he led the Bronx team to win the third place in the Little League Baseball World series. But the same outstanding performance that made him the star of the recently ended series also put the spotlight on an investigation …

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President Hipolito Mejia said yesterday that he will not change his ways just because he is President. “I am a president, like all of you,” he said at a meeting of his social program ministers at the National Palace. “I have not wanted the countryside to get out of my head,” he said. “There are …

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A Peruvian company, Corporacion de Negocios y Lacteos, has signed an agreement with the Dominican government for the installation of a plant to process plantains for fortified plantain flour and other products for public school breakfasts. The plant calls for a US$15 million investment over two phases. The plant will go up in the north …

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Hoy newspaper reports on the almost two-hour traffic jams during peak times on Sunday afternoon, returning to Santo Domingo from the East. President Hipolito Mejia got a taste of the bottleneck when returning from his Juan Dolio vacation home last Sunday. To skirt the bottleneck, his caravan moved into the opposite lane, causing even more …

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The National Association of Informatics Companies (Aneinfo) is complaining that a new US$300 million government plan to open computer schools nationwide will put them out of business, says El Caribe newspaper. The new governmental Instituto Audiovisual de Informatica (IADI) took a small computer school owned by Nazir Attalah and turned it into a nationwide program. …

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The president of the Junta Central Electoral, Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda explained that social peace and political equilibrium were behind his rulings in the cases of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano and Bloque Institutional Socialdemocrata. The PRSC ruling confirmed the leadership of former president Joaquin Balaguer. Party members had disputed this in their scramble to …

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Falconbridge has announced a three month suspension of production at its Bonao plant. The closing is due to the drastic reduction in international nickel-iron prices caused by the slowdown of the steel industry in the US and Japan. Production will stop on 28 October. From January to July 2001, Falconbridge’s gross profits were US$2.7 million …

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Judge Eduardo Sanchez Ortiz has ordered the former Minister of the Armed Forces Major General Constantino Matos Villanueva to appear before a criminal court regarding his knowledge of the arrest of Narciso Gonzalez. The journalist was reported missing on 26 May 1994 shortly after publishing a very critical expose on former President Joaquin Balaguer. The …

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Years of visits by hundreds of thousands of German tourists are bearing fruit. German Ambassador Eva Alexandra Countess Kendeffy says in Listin Diario newspaper that German cooperation, investment and travel continue to be at high levels in the DR. The German ambassador, who has been in the DR for two years now, says investments of …

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